The Michael Connelly Literary Universe

If you are a longtime reader of this column, you know of my frustration with the routine disdain expressed in certain quarters for “series fiction.” Of course sometimes such judgments are justified, but not because fiction of this kind is generically inferior to the standalone variety.

Among writers now at work, Michael Connelly has been one of the most resourceful in mining the potential of characters who develop from book to book over time. Beginning with his first novel, The Black Echo, in which he introduced his signature character, LAPD detective Harry Bosch, Connelly has created a series of series. Bosch, who is himself the protagonist of many books, also appears in others as a secondary character—sometimes extensively involved, other times only briefly onstage. Then there is Bosch’s half-brother, the flamboyant “Lincoln Lawyer” Mickey Haller—who now, late in his career, is looking for cases that actually serve the “public good,” as in last year’s novel The Proving Ground.

Centered in Southern California, though sometimes ranging elsewhere, these novels also constitute an informal social history encompassing more than three decades. It’s not only the people at the center of these books who change over time—it’s the place they inhabit and the larger society in which it exists. And on top of all this, Connelly has been actively involved in adaptations of his fiction on Netflix and other platforms, including a series based on the novels featuring Renée Ballard, an LAPD detective (originally from Hawaii) introduced in the 2017 novel The Late Show.

At a stage of life when many writers are running out of steam—he’ll turn seventy in July—Connelly is still going strong. A year ago, with Nightshade, he introduced yet another new series, this one set primarily on Catalina, the island just off the coast of Southern California, featuring a Los Angeles County police detective, Stilwell, who has been unfairly exiled to Catalina (so to speak) after a conflict with a colleague. 

Intended as punishment, the move turns out to be a blessing. Stilwell loves his new setting and, recently having gone through a bruising divorce, he connects with a woman born and raised on the island, Tash Dano, the assistant harbormaster. Before long there is a murder to investigate (for Catalina, despite its charms, is not the Garden of Eden).

A year later, we now have the second book in this series. Readers of Nightshade may recall that in the course of the book, oddly enough, we never learn Stilwell’s first name. Friends and colleagues generally call him “Stil” (as does Tash). In Ironwood, a friend addresses him in Spanish; we can infer that Stilwell’s first name is Stephen or Steven. Glad to have that little mystery cleared up.

This book is darker than the first one. While there are several strands of action, the most prominent involves a supremely arrogant and sadistic serial killer targeting women who are walking alone on hiking trails. In conveying the reality of such evil, Connelly never crosses the line into gratuitous horror, and yet there were times when I set the novel aside to take a break. 

In the course of his investigation, Stilwell connects for the first time with Renée Ballard, who is now working with a small, semi-autonomous cold-case unit. (In time, they will identify other victims of the killer, who left his most recent prey buried under an ironwood tree on the island, taunting the police.) About a third of the way through the book, there’s a marvelous scene at a cop’s funeral, which both Stilwell and Ballard attend.

Simon walked off and that was when Stilwell noticed that Renée Ballard was also at the funeral. He saw her talking to an old man he didn’t recognize. He wasn’t in uniform but had the bearing of a cop. He kicked around in the grass as Stilwell watched, then bent down to retrieve something. The old man touched Ballard’s arm, apparently said goodbye, and headed off.

The “old man,” as you may have guessed, is Harry Bosch; we can hope that he and Stilwell will become acquainted in a future volume, but if they don’t, the two of them and Ballard herself are nevertheless animated by the same passion for justice.

And speaking of Bosch, a new novel, The Hollow, is scheduled for publication late in October. It will reach back to the time when, after Bosch’s single mother was murdered, “he became a ward of the state, housed in MacLaren Children’s Center,” a snake pit of an institution. Michael Connelly, stay healthy, please.